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Alvarez RD10 Reviews  5 / 5 based on 2 reviewsI bought this guitar about 3 years ago at a shop in Seattle. I paid about $175.00 for it, and in the under $200.00 range, it was the best guitar available. I had played bass in a band during my high school/college years and I wanted to learn how to play guitar. I thought an acoustic was a pretty good place to start.
The guitar does have a very nice bright sound and seems to be made very well. In this price range, it is almost impossible to find anything buit this well. It has a lifetime guarantee, which was one of the selling points for me. I didn't know much about the Alvarez name when I bought the guitar but I have since found out that it is a very good one. This guitar stays in tune very well, which is an important consideration for a beginner lacking the ear skills to discern such things.
When I bought my guitar, the action was set by the factory very high, which may be why it sounded so good in the store. It was so high that I found it very difficult to play. I ended up bringing it to a shop and they lowered the action considerably and made this guitar much easier to play, especially for a beginner. The problem with doing this is that the sound isn't quite as good as it was before, as it has a bit of a low end buzz that doesn't sound right. Once I get stronger, I will probably have the action adjusted again.
This is a very well put together guitar. It looks to be much more expensive than it really is, and it seems to be a very rugged guitar, able to take a lot of punishment without even so much as getting out of tune.
For a beginner who wants to learn how to play, I would recommend this guitar highly. Once you become more of an accomplished player, it might be a good idea to upgrade to a better guitar, however. For a beginner's guitar, I don't think there is a better value in the market. That said, once you are no longer a beginner, you will probably want to invest in a better and more expensive guitar, because of the sound and increased playablity found in higher end guitars. Rick in New Hampshire rated this unit on 2003-01-28. I got it as a Christmas present from my parents. It was my first guitar, and they didn't realize at the time that by getting it for me, they were starting me down a path which would ultimately end in my playing grunge rock on a cheap stratoclone at two in the morning. In 20/20 hindsight, they'd probably have given me a flute.
I think they paid around $200.
Pretty much everything. The guitar has a really nice, bright sound, and reasonably good sustain. The tuners are fantastic, as I can play for a few hours running without any trouble.
The finish could be better, I think, but that's really the absolute last thing on my mind while I'm playing.
The pack-in LCD tuner was a joke, but that's nit-picking. I just really hate that tuner.
Very good. It held up very nicely under a totally new guitarist who didn't know how to take care of it. Any knicks it's sustained were entirely my fault, and I did a lot of stupid stuff I expected to really hurt the guitar, but it didn't even suffer a mark.
A word of caution from a stupid punk rock kid who tried to cheap out; The guitar comes with a set of very nice strings, and tossing some cheap bulk strings on later will really hurt the sound quality of this (or any) guitar. Spend a few bucks more; it'll be worth it in the short and long runs.
I really like this guitar. It's been reliable for everything from acoustic rock to bluegrass and country. I really reccomend it to any new guitarist, or a more experienced player who's looking for something they can count on for a reasonable price. I'd probably trust it for recording, even.
Now about that LCD tuner... Alex Steven Dixon rated this unit on 2001-07-31.
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